Small Woodland Owners' Group (SWOG)

News & Events

  • Free Consultancy for Foresters and Timber Processers

    Thanks to Mathew Woodcock of the Forestry Commision for alerting us to this useful offer. FACE – the Forest Advisory Consortium – are pleased to support Grown in Britain Week by offering all forestry and timber processing businesses operating in England a free 30 minute telephone consultancy from Monday 12th to Friday 16th October. This…

  • October 2015 Newsletter

    A glorious autumn is well under way, but once you’re back inside, take a look at the latest newsletter. Only 54 % of woodland owners and managers believe climate change will affect their woodlands – read more about the results of the 2015 British Woodland Resilience Survey, as well as a timely feature on foraging for…

  • September 2015 Newsletter

    The September newsletter contains plenty of news, features and appeals to complete woodland surveys. The Forestry Commission and Sylva want to hear your views – so tell them! Read about Freddie During’s tree-climbing course on the Isle of Wight. How about a trip to the Harcourt Arboretum near Oxford, the oldest botanic garden in the country? There are a number…

  • Making woodlands work survey

    England’s woods are a crucial part of the English countryside that provide a range of benefits to their owners and in doing so, enhance our wider landscape, ecology and economy. Woodland owners play an important role in helping to grow and expand woodland in Britain, while boosting their businesses and the forestry sector. The Forestry Commission wants…

  • August 2015 Newsletter

    The latest SWOG newsletter is a sun-filled extravaganza of woodland entertainment.   First, our good friends at Bentley are offering an early-bird discount to the 20th anniversary woodfair on 18-20 September. There are wonderful contributions from woodland owners: George Smith explains why he decided to buy a wood and describes the sheer fun it gives him…

  • Artizans of Wood – Roundwood Timber Framing Course

    Earlier this month I attended the first roundwood timber framing course run by Artizans of Wood at the Dangstein Conservancy in Rogate. The course showed us how to construct a cruck or ‘A’ frame style building from round and somewhat irregular poles.

  • Made from Wood from the Wood

    I’ve been quite aware that a lot of my woodland craft products have been reaching a stage of functionality which will just about do, then pressure of time and other projects seem to move into my field of vision and take over.

  • SWOG Meeting, Catterick, 12 September

    SWOG Meeting, near Catterick 10am-1pm 12 September 2015 Following the popular meeting in Yorkshire in March, we can look forward to another on Saturday 12 September. Two SWOG families have kindly agreed to jointly host a meeting in their woods near Catterick in North Yorkshire. These two woods, which were once part of the Kiplin…

  • Seed Collection Workshop

    Vanessa Sutcliffe would like to invite  members of the Small Woodland Owners’ Group to attend a one-day workshop on Seed Collection, focussing on tree species in Wilderness Wood, Hadlow Down, East Sussex. Participants will learn how to approach and identify a group of trees, make a high quality seed collection and gather data and other…

  • July 2105 Newsletter

    Summer seems to be with us (for a while, anyway). In this month’s newsletter we have a timely feature on finding water in woodlands, news of the RFS Excellence in Forestry Awards, as well as an article on green woodworking in Devon. We can also promise a SWOG meeting in September and a 25% discount…

  • Oriental Chestnut Gall Wasp

    Charlton Clark from the The Forestry Commission has issued the following statement regarding the discovery of the orienteal gall wasp in an area of kent.

  • Axe-making course, Sweden, summer 2015

    Ken Hume of the Oxfordshire Woodland Group is looking for fellow enthusiasts to join him on an axe-making course in Sweden. Participants have the opportunity to make their ‘dream axe’ under the expert tuition and guidance of Lars Enander and Ulrika Stridsberg. Lars and Ulrika are expert blacksmiths, and Lars is the author of Swedish Blacksmithing, a book on…